Archive for the ‘Web/Tech’ Category

When I first saw Shel Israel’s (@shelisrael) tweet and the iTunes store description off of his link, I was skeptical, as was Shel. Visual translations via an iPhone app?

Word Lens is the real thing.

I just conducted a quick test on the iPhone app.

On-screen text message:

iPhone screenshot of the Word Lens translation:

The application has a “Pause” button which takes a still of the translation. In still mode, the translated words become hyperlinks which allows the user to click through to see the translation of the specific word.

How much is this app?

The actual Word Lens application is free and it comes with a Word Reverse and Word Erase tools.

The English-to-Spanish and the Spanish-to-English translation engines are $4.99 each. To access those libraries, you click on the white oval at the top of the screen (it will read “Demo:Reverse Words”) and you are taken to a Languages screen which shows the installed items and the “Available to Download” items.

VIDEO: Word Lens in action – Santa Paula, CA

I photographed the “Smile at the camera” sign at the La Unica bakery then showed the owner how it worked. She was amazed by the translations.

Notes

* I’d rate the translation accuracy around 70-80%.

* The app doesn’t work very well with full pages of text but it will parse through and try to translate what it can.

* The app doesn’t have Spanish regional settings so it won’t know whether to translate “potatoes” to “papas” or to “patatas.” There are hundreds of such words that vary in usage from country to country.

* According to the iTunes listing, the requirements are:
– Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch (4th generation). Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Is the Word Lens application a game changer in the translation world or is this just another app?

I love sharing information, including technology trends, social media How To’s, breaking and local business news, and information on advocacy groups. On Twitter, I’ll share 5-10 items per day, sometimes in a rapid fire method. On Facebook I’ll “Like” or “Share” several posts a day. Multiply these activities by the number of Twitter and Facebook users and you have an unprecedented amount of sharing and re-sharing.

So why limit the scope of your message? Let it run wild!

Here are five tips to help you set your message free.

Give Your Email Legs

Ok, so you spent two weeks working with a team to create the perfect email message. Maybe you’re about to launch a new product, announce a new conference, drive donors to your non-profit site, or share your latest video creation.

There are three important items to add to your email deployment checklist:

1. Do you have an online version of your email with a link to that page on the email? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a juicy email that I want to share with the world and struggled or have been unable to find the online version. If I don’t have a link, I can can’t share it with my online network. What a missed opportunity.
   
   If you do have an online version, please think clearly before deciding to host that content on the email management tool’s site. Do you want to drive content to Constant Contact’s site or to your site, for example?
2. Do you have a Twitter or Facebook share feature on your email? This makes sharing one step easier. With the click of a button, your message can flow to two of the most supercharged sharing sites in the world.
3. Is it easy to forward the email to a friend? Some email messages have nifty “Forward to a Friend” features that make it easy to share content. I rarely use this feature but there are some people who like it, especially if it is from an authority site like a news agency or major publication. If the email is breaking news or highly relevant to your personal or business contacts then this could help your message take off.

This Kodak email has an online version and ways for users to subscribe to Facebook and Twitter. The email could be enhanced with actual tweet buttons that automatically format the Twitter and Facebook messages, so posting is only one click away.

Let’s look at this from a numbers perspective. If you send out your email message to your permission-based list of 10,000 contacts and you don’t add any sharing features, then your message is limited to the number of recipients plus the number of times your email is forwarded to other contacts. Let’s be generous and say that 100 of the emails were forwarded to contacts. That’s a reach of 10,100.

If you add a link to your online content and have a Facebook and Twitter share then the numbers shift. Your initial contacts receive the message and can then re-post the message to their followers via Twitter or Friends on Facebook. If I tweet about an item, the message is instantly available to over 8,400 followers! That’s almost double the reach from ONE contact. Factor in retweets and other people sharing and the reach can get to 100,000 very quickly.

From your Website to the World

1. Add a Tweet button and Facebook Share and/or Like feature to your Web pages and blog posts. Yes, this is the same tip as for your email messaging but it’s important to give your site/blog readers a way to share content with their networks Clear a path.
2. Do you have a compelling image on your web page or blog post? A good photo or graphic will catch a persons attention and make it more share worthy. On Facebook, the image will show up as a thumbnail picture. Your Facebook friends will be much more likely to Like the post and to re-share it.
   
   Note: if you don’t select a photo to go with your page/post and someone “Facebooks it” then they will either get a selection of random image options (icons from your sidebar or unrelated content) or they won’t have any option.

(Link to The Spice Spoon blog.)

Review

We just reviewed how to clear a path for your important messages. If your message is clear, relevant, and timely then these tips can help your message spread like wildfire.

Do you have any other design tips to help your messages spread?

Photo Credit: Vestman on Flickr – License

Google recently closed off Facebook’s access to import Gmail contacts. Google felt that if Facebook was able to import its Gmail contacts that Google should be able to import from Facebook. Since that wasn’t going to happen, Google pulled the plug on its Facebook integration.

To counter this Google move, Facebook added instructions to its site on how to do a workaround.

This is what I did:

1. Noticed the “Find More Friends” section on my Facebook profile

2. Clicked on the “Find Friends” button.

3. Facebook brings up a mini window which churns then redirects me to a “Find Your Friends” page which has instructions on how to download my Gmail contacts then re-upload them to be processed. SNEAKY!

This is the Find Your Friends page view:

It will be interesting to see if Facebook experiences a dip in new users after the Google move despite Facebooks workaround. What do you think, will it have an effect on Facebook numbers?

Photo credit: Ludovico Cera on Flickr – license

Generating a “group picture” of your Twitter followers makes for a great visual for your Twitter background or for blog graphics.

I just ran into at tool called Twitter Mosaic which allows you to see either your followers or your friends (those you follow that follow you back).

It looks like the tool only captures about 100 followers then tiles them. So if you’re following a gazillion people then they won’t all show up.

You can also create a coffee mug or T-shirt or other products using the tool. I like the additional message on the shirt, “Are you following me?” Well are you?

Facebook has a myriad ways to receive notifications but not from your own Facebook Page.

In order to get notifications you have to do a workaround and “Like” your own Page post. After doing this for a while, this can get old for your regular Facebook profile friends.

Enter NutshellMail, an site that allows you to manage portions of your social network via email. My favorite feature – NutshellMail allows you to receive Facebook page notifications!

When I first heard about NutshellMail back in 2009, I didn’t get it. Why would people want to manage their social network activities via email? In fact, I chatted with Mark Schmulen (one of the co-founders) over brunch about the application for half and hour and still didn’t get it. I get it now and it’s a great patch for the missing Facebook Page notification feature.

Key NutshellMail Features

Easy to set up accounts
You can configure Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Myspace accounts. On Facebook you can pick your profile and any of your Pages.

Easy to schedule
You can schedule up to three notifications per day. This isn’t the same as regular Facebook profile notifications that can be sent as they happen but it’s the next best thing. If you really need to see the latest updates, you can click on the “Get Latest Notifications” button on the notification email and it will send you the latest and greatest information.

Nice looking emails
After doing email marketing for over 7 years, it drives me crazy when companies send out emails that look like poo on key devices. NutshellMail is made for email so I’m glad they took the time to make things render properly on different clients.

Review

I’m still playing with NutshellMail and learning how to configure all of the notification options but it’s solved a major problem for me. Until Facebook rolls out a way to receive notifications from Facebook pages without a hack, I’ll keep using NutshellMail.

Do you have an other way of managing your Facebook pages, I’d love to hear about it.

This is a video response to Cathy Larkin (@WhyDoWeBlog on Twitter) who asked about Trackbacks during a #blogchat conversation.

What are trackbacks and when they would be used in relation to WordPress.org blogs? Watch the video and find out.

Trackbacks in WordPress Blogs – Click here to View FULL SCREEN

If you like this post, comment, share, and set it free!

Photo Credit: Seryo via Flickr Creative Commons